For a recent and innovative history of Argentine industrialisation, see Fernando Rocchi, Chimneys in the Desert: Industrialization in Argentina During the Export Boom Years, 1870–1930. (Stanford, California, 2006). 2 The term ‘occupational accident’ seems to most accurately represent the phenomenon that in Spanish is referred to as ‘accidente de trabajo’ whereas ‘industrial accident’ would not cover the range of accidents that occurred in the workplace in Argentina in the early twentieth century. In fact, according to the investigations of the National Labour Department, the occupational groups that suffered the highest number of occupational accidents were carriage drivers (carreros) and bricklayers (alban ˜iles). For numbers from the city of Buenos Aires, see Boletı ´n del Departamento Nacional del Trabajo (hereafter BDNT), no. 20 (31 July 1912),